My favorite French word, bigoudi, is a very likely sounding name for a hair roller. (The i's are pronounced like long e's.) I even know a French family who nicknamed its grandmother Bigoudette because she spent so much time with her hair in a mise en plis, or set in curlers.
At home, too, we called our own tender-headed and tantrum-throwing toddler who would hardly let us touch his hair, Le Bigoudi. I was dumb-founded at the check-out stand in a French supermarket one day when a young clerk admiring my little boy's anglaises or boucles (curly locks), naively asked me if I rolled his hair. "No," I said, and glibly gave her my down-pat, all-purpose explanation,"He's French."
Dictum: Cheveux frisés, aimé. Curly hair, well-loved.
Text & photos ©2009 P.B. Lecron
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